Better a Glutton than Gay? Picking and Choosing Our Sins

We often quote the truism, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner,” but we seldom apply it evenly.

I recently heard a pastor open his sermon with a lighthearted comment about his sin of overeating at Thanksgiving.

The crowd chuckled and nodded approvingly.

Most had committed the same sin but knew their sin was OK because they are under grace and not under law.

Later in the same sermon the pastor commented that when we buy coffee at Starbucks, we are “supporting homosexual laws.”

The crowd shook their heads in disgust.

This was not a sin they had committed, and they knew the Bible is very clear about homosexuality. It is an abomination and must be stopped in its tracks.

It doesn’t matter that gluttony makes the deadly sins Top Seven, nor that according to the CDC, 36 percent of Americans are obese, nor that “Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.”

Geoff Surratt, having served Saddleback Church as Pastor of Church Planting and Seacoast Church as Executive Pastor, is now the Director of Exponential. (www.exponential.com) He also works with churches on strategy, structure and vision as a free agent church encourager and catalyst. He has over twenty-nine years of ministry experience in the local church and is the author of several books including The Multisite Church Revolution and 10 Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing.